With a little melancholy and lots of happiness I look back at my trip to Minnesota. There is not a day passing without me thinking of it. What is it that made it special? Jim Brandenburg is a great inspiration and a great thinker. Read his book ‘Brother wolf’ and you will see. But it’s also the gathering of different people sharing their passion for photography and love for nature. What has really struck me as is the wilderness of the Superior National Forest. I would name it ‘Spritual National Forest’. Here, I have witnessed true wilderness and I have become aware once again of our place on earth…To speak with Jim’s words ‘Everything in nature has a spirit…..’

Cheers, Niels

JYou can just be lucky or you can enforce your luck….or a combination of both. For making this photo it was the latter. I was breaking camp when the excited calling of Ravens drew my attention. Where Ravens call…..wolves are around. I was alerted instantly and I hurried to pack my things and follow the sounds with my canoe. When I heard breaking branches in the woods I suspected a deer to be near………to my great surprise a wolf appeared..and another..and another! Fortunately they used the boulders to walk upon and this gave me time to grab my camera and take shots. With my canoe I tried to pick them up after they disappeared. Close to my landing point I saw two of the three wolves returning and this time they saw me. One of them stopped and stared at me for some time….I saw that two of them wore radio neck collars. It annoyed me, but on the other hand, it is part of the story of these wolves and of the wolves of Minnesota.
Jim Brandenburg wrote to me: “I am extremely impressed with the images of the wolves you captured. It is very rare to have such a great setting. If you would show these to photographers that do wolves a lot they would assume it was done with tame animals… The radio collars prove it’s the real thing!” What more can I add to that…..

Cheers, Niels